


A Time For Peace

by Sela21k



Category: Stargate - All Series, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-13
Updated: 2011-09-13
Packaged: 2017-10-23 17:35:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/252963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sela21k/pseuds/Sela21k
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s a time for war and a time for peace.  A good leader knows what time it is and prepares for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Time For Peace

Her anger was such that she completely forgot her manners as she stormed into his office without knocking. She tossed the file she had been reading contemptuously on the desk in front of him and stood with her hands knotted in tight fists. Colonel Jack O’Neill looked up from the mission reports he had stayed late to go over and leveled a cool, evaluating gaze on Dr. Elizabeth Weir. Jack could tell that she wanted to start a fight as he knew she would when he slipped the file onto her desk earlier in the day. Her eyes were blazing and the color in her cheeks was high. In the back of his mind he mused on how anger and righteous indignation suited her.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” she said accusingly. “It was you that picked me, not the president.”

There was a touch of resentment in her voice and he wondered what bothered her the most: the fact that she hadn’t been the president’s first choice to run the SGC or the fact that she had been his.

“Yeah…so?” he answered lazily leaning back in his chair.

That he had answered her so directly threw Elizabeth off for a moment. She had expected him to brush her off, deny it or ignore her completely. She hated the fact that he sat there calm, cool, slightly amused and completely sure of himself while she felt none of those. What she felt was off balanced and angry that she always felt that way in Jack O’Neill’s presence and she wanted a fight even though she didn’t exactly know why.

“I don’t like being used, Colonel,” she said. “And I don’t like being played for a fool.”

“No one’s using you, Elizabeth,” Jack replied smoothly. “And if you were a fool, I never would have picked you to run the SGC.”

“Why did you then?” she asked refusing to accept the off-handed compliment. “You know I have no love for the military. I don’t like the way you tend to shoot first and ask questions later. I believe in talking things out, finding another way instead of bullets and bombs.”

“You’ll get over it,” Jack said looking back down at the file open on his desk. “Just wait until you’ve been screwed over by the Tok’ra a couple of times. You’ll want to drop kick the whole lot of them into a black hole.

“Colonel – “

“Elizabeth –“

“I prefer to be addressed as Doctor Weir,” she snapped.

“You’ll get over that, too,” Jack said as he came to his feet and stretched. “What time is it? I think I’ll call it a night.”

Elizabeth stood firm in front of him as he made his way around the desk. No way was he going to brush her off without giving her some answers.

“If you’re looking just to put a friendly civilian face over a military project to make it easier for the military to continue its high handed administration of this project then you’ve picked the wrong person, Colonel. I’m no push over.”

Jack wondered how she would react if told her he had lingered on the thought of pushing her over a number of times but he decided not to go there tonight. She was not in the mood for being teased and it had been a long, long day for both of them.

“Look, I don’t have time to coddle you or to play to your ego.” Jack said tiredly. “And throwing a tantrum doesn’t work on me – Daniel will tell you that. The fact of the matter, Doctor -” Elizabeth winced at the edge he put on her title. “ - is that I knew I was chosen to take over after Hammond from day one of being picked as his second in command. I also knew that part of being the heir apparent to this command meant I had to prepare for its future. Hammond and I had decided years before that we needed help to start our own diplomatic wing of the SGC and your name was on the top of the list to head it up. We’ve wanted to bring you on board for a while now and have you to help us to develop, recruit and train a diplomatic corps but Anubis showing up and a change of administrations made us shelve our plans for the time being. One of the reasons Hammond accepted the post in DC was so he could work the plan from up there.”

Caught totally off guard, Elizabeth stood silent ashamed now of her reaction. She had been so bent out of shape to find that her perceived mission of straightening out the corrupt military establishment run wild had been incorrect. To find out that she was the second choice after the poster boy of said military establishment was humiliating. It also bothered her that she had misjudged Jack O’Neill. He was the better person to lead the SGC and that was humbling. While she had been thinking of herself and her place in history, he had been thinking of the people of Earth and planning for their future.

Jack picked up the file and handed it back to Elizabeth. She took it silently and turned to leave wanting nothing more to go back to her office and hide. Jack’s voice stopped her and held her.

“Don’t think for one minute think that you were second choice to run the SGC. You’ve always been my first choice.” he said. “Yes, I’m a soldier, and proud to have been one all of my life. I became a soldier to protect those things that are important to me. When the SGC was first created it was a time of war. That was my time.”

Jack joined Elizabeth at the door forcing her to meet his gaze. “There’s a time for war, Doctor, and a time for peace. A good leader knows what time it is and prepares for it. As we reach out and contact more extraterrestrial races it is imperative to Earth’s survival that we actively work to bring about a time of peace. That’s what you’re here for. You’re part of our preparation. Your time has just come a little sooner than expected.”

Jack took a step closer to Elizabeth and his voice dropped to almost a whisper.

“Now can you handle that, move past your bruised ego and take the SGC into a new era? Do you know what time it is, Doctor?”

Elizabeth drew in a deep breath. She heard the challenge in Jack’s voice and saw the quiet expectation in his eyes and experienced for herself the power of his personality that compelled his people to follow him without question. Letting it out, she slowly released the anger she had felt when she had come across the file that had revealed the circumstances behind her hiring and surrender the fight that he had already won.

“I believe it’s time for me to apologize to you,” she said giving him a sheepish grin. “And maybe time I grew up,”

“Growing up - I wouldn’t recommend it,” Jack said returning her grin. “But in way of apology, Doctor," he said as he led her out of his office “I will let you buy me dinner…”

“Only if you will call me Elizabeth,” she offered somewhat awkwardly in way extending an olive branch. “And is it ok for me to call you…Jack?”

There was a mischievous twinkle in Jack O’Neill’s eyes that caused Elizabeth Weir to blush as he replied, “Absolutely, Elizabeth. I’ve been looking forward to it...”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2007 Rair-Pairing ficathon on Live Journal
> 
> Prompt: A conversation between Jack and Liz, both before she went to Atlantis and before she went to the SGC with a happy and optimistic ending.
> 
> For paranoidangel42
> 
> Orig. Publish Date: Feb. 12, 2007


End file.
